Monday, February 1, 2010

Stable version of Firefox for Mobile released...

Mozilla has been hard at work on Firefox for Mobile (aka Fennec). At the end of last week, a stable release was made public for Nokia's Maemo platform. Currently, the N900 is the only phone that the browser has been optimized for. The N810 and N800 Internet Tablet are also supported, but not recommended. Support for Android and Windows Mobile is currently in the works, and as of now, no support is planned for the iPhone, BlackBerry, or Symbian platforms. Firefox for Mobile is the first mobile browser to support add-ons-the very thing that gave the desktop version of Firefox its rise to power. Currently, there are about 40 add-ons available, with more sure to come. The browser will have tabbed browsing and allows users to maximize their screen real estate by hiding controls off the screen. The controls can be accessed via Mozilla's unique browser navigation layout by dragging a website to the far left or right. Weave Sync is also one of Firefox for Mobile's heavily touted features. It's an add-on that will synchronize user's tabs, history, bookmarks, and passwords across all of a user's installs of Firefox. This will free users from having their browser data compartmentalized, allowing them to browse worry-free on any of their mobile devices or computers with the same experience. Just like its desktop counterpart, the Awesome Bar is still there, along with location-aware browsing, custom security settings, and automated updates. If you want to try out Firefox for Mobile on your computer, you can download an emulator from Mozilla's website. To download it onto your N900, visit firefox.com/m from your mobile browser.